Finally got my SkyHawk

What a great bike. I was about to spend around $700 for a bike that didn't have the specs of this one. After some problems with FedEx I got my second SkyHawk Friday. It was great working with Eric and Jeremy.. great guys. I look forward to doing business with them again when I'm ready for an upgrade. After a quick and easy assembly I had some minor tuning to do on the derailluers but that didn't take long at all and I was able to do it myself after restoring my dad's old 94 Trek. This was my first time on a single track since I was a kid, about 25 years ago, and rode my BMX on old motorcycle trails.

The SkyHawk felt like a big BMX compared to the 20 year old Trek I've been riding to work the past several months. I can't even describe how easy it was to ride. For a newbie like me riding the trails here in Florida the front fork did fine and for some reason it also felt like I had rear suspension compared to my old bike. This thing handled the trails well. I love it!

Awesome, thanks for the post. I JUST ordered mine today. I was already excited now I'm really excited! =) Congrats on the new ride. What did you have to adjust on the derailleurs?

I'm glad you said it felt like a big BMX bike compared to your old one... I have BMX roots as well and it brought back a few memories. I see we had similar thoughts on the platform pedals. I ordered myself a pair of those too.

I was the same way. I was almost convinced I was going to end up spending around $500 for a Hardrock disc at the LBS, I didn't even realize until reading a lot on here that the components on the Hardrock were dead bottom end. I have no doubt that if the Skyhawk had GT/Giant/Specialized, etc. on the side of it, it'd be a $700 bike at least...maybe even more.

Airborne was a great find, I found them through an ad on this site that I clicked on thinking it would be nothing.

Enjoy that pretty new bike!

Earnest Hemingway once said "The world is a fine place and worth fighting for." I agree with the second part.

Awesome, thanks for the post. I JUST ordered mine today. I was already excited now I'm really excited! =) Congrats on the new ride. What did you have to adjust on the derailleurs?

I'm glad you said it felt like a big BMX bike compared to your old one... I have BMX roots as well and it brought back a few memories. I see we had similar thoughts on the platform pedals. I ordered myself a pair of those too.

I just had to adjust the High and Low screws on both my derailluers. This vid goes into further detail for the front and the same guy does one for the rear as well. I also had to adjust my calipers. There's a vid t the bottom for that as well. Those pedals pop sometimes when I pedal hard. It didn't bother me when I was on the trial yesterday though.

Nice! Congrats man. Maye ill run into ya out at the trails Im also in florida and ride santos, chuck lennon., carter rd, graham swamp, balm boyette! This weekend was perfect for a ride! Hopefully I will get my Airborne Bike this week!

I just had to adjust the High and Low screws on both my derailluers. This vid goes into further detail for the front and the same guy does one for the rear as well. I also had to adjust my calipers. There's a vid t the bottom for that as well. Those pedals pop sometimes when I pedal hard. It didn't bother me when I was on the trial yesterday though.

Originally Posted by Jem7sk

Here is the other vid. I can only put one in per post

Awesome, thank you very much for some help and direction. I can see both videos becoming VERY valuable this weekend or the next! I consider myself mechanically inclined that's why I decided to go the Airborne route. Besides, for me, wrenching is another great part of all of my hobbies. (radio control, target shooting) I enjoy assembling, adjusting and making things work by myself, gives you a sense a fulfillment right? If you don't know something there's always a tutorial on the internet or a youtube video about it like you posted for me.

What kind of pedals are those? I went with the Wellgo MG-1's.

Do you wear regular athletic sneakers or you have specific riding shoes?

I have always enjoyed figuring things out myself and not only saving money but having the reward of working on it and knowing how it works. I gained a lot of bicycle knowledge recently when I rebuilt my Dad's 94 Trek mountain bike that he recently gave me and that is what got me into mountain biking in the first place. I took the thing completely apart and put it all back together... had to replace some parts and spent more money than I expected but the knowledge was worth every penny. Made my ride into work a lot easier as well because I ride the bike to work everyday it is not raining. Here's a post I did on it if you didn't catch it in my obscure link above:Newbie just restored Dad's 20 year old Trek

After spending a little over $200 just rebuilding a 20 year old bike it makes that Airborne Sabre very enticing. For the roads though that Trek is a better bike as it is rigid and can probably go faster. For the trails, the Sabre would eat it's lunch. When I'm ready to upgrade, my wife will get this SkyHawk and I'll probably upgrade to a Goblin or Hobgoblin.

Just so you guys know, it'd probably be worthwhile to go over your Skyhawks to check all the bolts to make sure they're tight. I just picked mine up from the LBS. The clerk that checked me out wasnt the mechanic that worked on the bike, but the mechanic had put in the notes that "there were a lot of bolts that weren't very tight." Other than that they said the bike was tip top.

That said I wasn't impressed with the bike shop...it was a Trek store, a large chain, and they charged $60 for the tune up (their standard, rubber stamped charge), which seems high. After I got home I found the front brake still has the same (Very slight) brake rub that it had when I dropped it off. Not worth my time to take it back, but I won't return to that shop. I should have looked harder for a small shop anyway. I just hope that when they say the bike is solid, they really inspected it like they should have.

Earnest Hemingway once said "The world is a fine place and worth fighting for." I agree with the second part.

Today I rode the advanced section of our local park and there was a 2 foot plank bridge that went across a dried up creek then and quick 180 and back across another plank bridge. Somehow my foot came off the pedals going around the 180. I lost momentum on the next plank bridge and just nearly feel off. I don't have any problems on the easier terrain but for technical, tough terrain I can see it will be in my best interest to upgrade my pedals and shoes.

This bike was amazing though. Handled everything well. Still loving it. I dropped off one large drop and bottomed out my front fork but it handled it like a champ. Glad I wasn't, on a rigid bike. The bike shifts very easy and smooth which made the technical trial easy to manage. I had to change gears a lot on that one and use an extra lower gear that I've not needed on the other two trails.

Not bad for a $350 bike. My medium Raleigh Talus 29 was around 33lbs stock and even with XT cranks, XT derailleur, Flow wheels, 12-25 9spd cassette, and Reba 80mm fork it still comes in at 29.5lbs. Sometimes I wish I would have held on to my Talus 26er SS with DT Swiss wheels. It was somewhere around 25lbs.

I could probably sell the Flows to finance the purchase of a Skyhawk... Do the Kenda tires that come on the Skyhawk have a model name?